Electronic equipment is often designed in accordance with standardized dimensional parameters, for example being shaped and dimensioned for reception in standard sized racks. Such racks typically include upright supports separated by an opening. The opening widths of racks tend to be standard sized, as adopted by industry, manufacturers, and/or governments. In the United States, for example, telephone companies may use racks having opening widths of 23 inches, whereas telephone companies in European countries may use racks having opening widths of 19 inches.
Rack mountable electronic equipment may take the form of modular electronic equipment. Often, modular electronic equipment is installed into a chassis and the chassis is then mounted in the opening of a rack. In the case of modular communication equipment, a chassis may house optical electronic equipment such as transmitters, receivers, intelligent control interface modules, power supplies, and the like. A chassis may also house cooling fans or other cooling mechanisms to aid in controlling the operating temperature of the equipment modules.
In a common scenario, an electronic equipment module slides into a slot (or slots) in the chassis and connects at one end to a chassis backplane defining a cable interface area that has mating communication connectors to receive the module. Cables may route to and through the chassis. Once the modules are installed into the slots they are typically wired to other electronic modules that may or may not be located in the same rack.
Cable management brackets are sometimes mounted on the chassis adjacent the cable interface area to route cables, e.g. in bundles, and/or to segregate cables connecting to different modules.